Photos: Tufts Beats Colby Off Big Run

Tufts used a 12-goal run to top Colby, 20-8, on Saturday. Photographer Larry Humphrey captured the action above; the complete Tufts news release is below. For all of Saturday's DIII results, visit the Scoreboard page.

MEDFORD - With the game tied 8-8 early in the third quarter, the fourth-ranked Tufts men's lacrosse team went on a 12-goal run to take a 20-8 final over Colby College in NESCAC action Saturday afternoon at Bello Field.

Senior tri-captain Beau Wood scored three goals during the 12-0 stretch and sophomore John Uppgren had two goals and two assists as the Jumbos improved to 4-0 overall and 2-0 in the league. Uppgren led the Jumbos with five goals and three assists overall.

Colby, which overcame a 7-3 deficit to tie the game at 8-8, suffered its first loss of the season (3-1, 2-1 NESCAC). The Mules were paced by four goals from junior Derek Youngman.

With 20 goals today, Tufts now has 84 in its first four contests of 2014. They got off to a strong offensive start this afternoont by netting the first three, including Uppgren and junior Cole Bailey both scoring and assisting goals.

Colby responded by scoring the last goal of the first quarter by Youngman and the first of the second from sophomore Alex Rutan to close the margin to 3-2. Tufts would get four of the next five though and lead 7-3 on an Uppgren goal at 7:07 of the second.

The Mules answered again, tallying the next three goals to get within one at 7-6 on Youngman's strike with 2:27 to go until halftime. Uppgren scored at 1:07 of the second and the Jumbos led 8-6 at the break.

Colby junior goalie Tyler Will was exceptional in the first half with 12 saves, including eight in the first period. The Jumbos won 10 of 16 first-half face-offs and had a 27-20 shots advantage, but Will limited the damage.

The Mules picked their momentum back up to start the third quarter with back-to-back goals by Youngman tying the score 8-8 with 11:53 on the clock. They would not score again though, as Wood started Tufts' decisive run of 12 unanswered goals at 9:43. Sophomore Jake Gillespie scored a pair of goals during this span as Tufts ran away with it, outscoring Colby 6-2 in the third and 6-0 in the fourth.

Wood with four goals and an assist and Bailey with two goals and three assists made their usual big contributions to the Tufts attack. Sophomore Conor Helrfrich won 18 of 26 face-offs for Tufts and scored twice. Kane Delaney, Dan Alles and Garrett Read all caused two turnovers for Tufts with Delaney adding six ground balls. Senior Patton Watkins played all but 91 seconds in goal and made 12 saves.

Freshman Austin Sayre finished with a goal and an assist for Colby. Sophomore Sam Wasserman tallied two assists. Junior defenseman Peter Willauer recorded a game-high three caused turnovers, while sophomore D-man Kenny Jacobson grabbed four ground balls. Will finished with 19 saves in the Colby goal.

The Jumbos had advantages of 55-35 in shots and 52-36 in ground balls. They were dominant on face-offs (22/32) with junior Ryan Le also winning four.

Tufts takes its annual trip to Baltimore next and plays at #5 Stevenson on Tuesday. Colby is at Southern Maine that day.